


Enough

by Kass



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Gen, Jewish!Harold, Judaism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-10 15:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3295967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kass/pseuds/Kass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We're going to grab something to eat on the way back," Reese murmured. "You want a bagel?"</p>
<p>"Certainly," Harold said, without thinking, and then stopped himself. A quick calendrical query confirmed his suspicions. "On second thought, Mr. Reese, never mind."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enough

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hagar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hagar/gifts).



"That should do it, Finch," Reese said in Harold's ear. Reese and Shaw had been out all night following up on their latest number, Laura Caldwell, a reporter for Newsday who had attracted the attention of some fairly unsavory characters.

But Harold was far smarter than the average mobster, or even a few of them put together. Laura's two would-be assailants were now in Carter's capable care, on their way into custody. "Yes, I think Carter has it from here," Harold agreed.

"We're going to grab something to eat on the way back," Reese murmured. "You want a bagel?"

"Certainly," Harold said, without thinking, and then stopped himself. A quick calendrical query confirmed his suspicions. "On second thought, Mr. Reese, never mind."

"You sure?" Shaw asked.

"Yes." Harold's stomach was unpleasantly empty, but he would find an alternative.

"See you in fifteen," Reese said, and the earpiece went silent.

By the time Reese and Shaw arrived at the library, Harold had heated himself a bowl of ramen noodles and was eating them absently while coding.

Reese sat down in his customary armchair. Shaw preferred to stand. Harold could hear them removing their bagels from the paper bag and crinkling up the waxed paper. Bear whined once, but stopped quickly. He knew better than to beg like that.

"Ramen for breakfast," Shaw said presently. "Is this some kind of weird nostalgia for your undergraduate days?"

Harold spun his wheeled chair to face them. "No, but it was the best I could find without leaving the building; we should probably look into replenishing our stores."

"And you didn't take us up on the bagel offer because," Shaw prompted.

"I'm not eating bread this week." Harold waited a moment to see who would catch up first. It didn't take long.

"I didn't know you were Jewish." Shaw sounded grudgingly pleased that there was something about Harold she hadn't yet been able to suss out.

"Only in the most perfunctory sense," Harold told them. "I can't remember the last time I went to a seder, much less set foot in a synagogue."

He did remember the last seder he'd attended, actually. It had been with Grace. He pushed that memory aside with the ease of long practice.

"But you give up bread during Passover," Reese confirmed.

"It's a minimal hardship," Harold said mildly.

"I didn't think ramen were kosher for Passover," Shaw said, pointedly.

"Oh, I'm sure they're not," Harold agreed. "My practice is idiosyncratic at best. I don't bother with the classical categories of permitted and forbidden. I just avoid leaven for seven days."

"Not eight?" Reese asked. Shaw looked at him with vague surprise. "You're not the only one who knows something about Judaism," he told her.

"I follow the American Reform, and standard Israeli, calendar on this issue."

"So you grew up Reform," Reese guessed.

"You're fishing, Mr. Reese."

"Since we're on the subject," Shaw said, "you believe in God, Finch?"

"I've never understood that to be necessary. It's certainly not why I'm eschewing bread."

"I've known plenty of Jewish atheists," Reese weighed in.

"I don't know that I would call myself an atheist, Mr. Reese," Harold corrected him, "but I haven't encountered incontrovertible evidence of a higher power."

Reese glanced from Harold to Shaw. "Do _you_ believe in God, Shaw?" Reese asked her.

She looked at him as though he had sprouted a third eye. "Do you?" she retorted.

"I believe in Harold," Reese said, and grinned.

"I'm touched by your confidence," Harold said drily, "though I hardly think I'm in His league."

"Or Hers," Shaw pointed out. Both men looked at her, surprised. "What? The God I don't believe in could be female."

"Shaw, you are full of surprises." Reese tossed his crumpled wax paper toward the trash can. He missed by about an inch. Shaw smirked at him as he went to retrieve it.

Harold's cellphone vibrated in his pocket. He glanced at it; a ping from the server. He turned back to his monitors. "Get some sleep," he told them. "I'll let you know when the next number comes in."

"You get some sleep too," Reese suggested.

"In a little while," Harold said absently, already focused on code.

They managed to convict or save so few -- it was never enough. And yet each one had to be enough. If they saved only one life today, dayenu -- wasn't that it?

If he found himself humming his grandfather's melody as he worked, well: the Machine wouldn't mind.

[ ](http://tinypic.com?ref=ayr60o)


End file.
